How to make ‘an orgy of fire’? Theatre and Ritual in Mário de Sá-Carneiro and Antonin Artaud

Abstract

Both Mário de Sá-Carneiro’s essay “O teatro-arte” (1913) and Antonin Artaud’s book Le Théâtre et son Double (1938) announce a sort of theater that didn’t exist yet, and, in a way, can never exist: through a metaphysical sublimation or through the cruelty of the body taken by the plague, both authors intend to create a sacred ritual. How can one make that transmutation of the scenic game, and at what cost?